Speedboat and trailer become detached from moving pickup

Speedboat and trailer become detached from moving pickup on Ben Maddox Way - destroying a sign, clipping bushes and slamming into utility pole

BY GERALD CARROLL / gcarroll@visalia.gannett.com • August 19, 2009

An orange speedboat, which had just been picked up from the repair shop, and its trailer became detached from a moving pickup truck just before 6 p.m. Wednesday and slid more than 180 yards on southbound Ben Maddox Way near Laura Avenue, witnesses reported.

No injuries were reported. Visalia police did not disclose any further details.

Pickup driver and boat owner Aaron Ernst said he was driving south on Ben Maddox when his truck hit a “dip” in the road at the Laura Avenue intersection. The dip caused a sharp movement of the trailer hitch, and the trailer and boat snapped off the rear of the pickup.

“It [trailer] came beside me, to the right of the truck,” Ernst said. “It was like one of those slow-motion, dreamlike things you know you can’t stop.”

While the boat flew off separately, and sustained minor damage, the trailer wasn’t so fortunate. It skidded 120 yards along the right-side curb before crushing a street sign and shearing twigs and leaves off a dozen roadside bushes.

The trailer finally came to rest after sliding 40 more yards when its right fender struck a utility pole — denting the fender and knocking off one of two tires on that side.

Despite the damage, the trailer and boat were reassembled and driven off after Visalia police filed a report.